All Things 2024-25 Minnesota Twins Off-Season Thread

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Breakin' The Plane said:
The Twins have a new GM. Jeremy Zoll has been promoted from Assistant GM to GM, Falvey moves up to President, Dave St. Peter (maybe his choice, maybe nudged aside) moves on to an adivsory role.
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more details: from the Strib:

35 years after he joined the team as an intern, Twins President Dave St. Peter announced Tuesday morning that he is stepping back from the chief executive role he has held since 2002.

St. Peter will remain with the Twins as a strategic advisor to his successor — current President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey, who will become the team’s chief executive over both baseball and business. There are only two other executives in the sport (Toronto’s Mark Shapiro and Tampa Bay’s Matt Silverman) who are believed to hold similar roles.

And to help build the roster, one of Falvey’s top lieutenants, Jeremy Zoll, has been promoted to general manager.

“There are many decisions made, more than [people] realize on a daily basis, that I don’t make, that the likes of Jeremy and other directors and assistant GMs and VPs and others make,” said Falvey...... “Key roster decisions, trades, those are still going to involve Joe Pohlad, me, Jeremy, Dave.”

Zoll now inherits the title most recently held by Thad Levine, who left the organization in October, but perhaps with a somewhat broader role, given Falvey’s new responsibilities.

“A number of the most recent trades we’ve made, from start to finish, [Zoll] was the lead negotiator,” Falvey said, citing the Twins’ acquisition of Sonny Gray in 2022 as an example. “It’s clear to me that agents have a tremendous amount of respect for Jeremy. … He’s gotten so many reps with agents and other teams, that’ll be one of the easier aspects of this transition.”

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a lot of layers to this. the timing is interesting. moving Falvey into more of a business role, and apparently giving Zoll more of a role on the baseball side. all while the team is up for sale, and no guarantee that the new owners will want to keep the same people in the front office - or keep them in the same roles. as noted in the article, there are only 2 other teams where the same person oversees both baseball and business operations.
 


Update on the Ray's situation. Estimate to fix is $55M. Would be ready by 2026 season. Definitely will be playing home games elsewhere in 2025. Where, still to be determined. All the spring training facilities in the area have Class A League games so would have to work around that. Going to be interesting and somewhat messy.
 

TNGophfan said:
Update on the Ray's situation. Estimate to fix is $55M. Would be ready by 2026 season. Definitely will be playing home games elsewhere in 2025. Where, still to be determined. All the spring training facilities in the area have Class A League games so would have to work around that. Going to be interesting and somewhat messy.
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I've been to the Yankees facility, right next to the Bucs stadium. Pretty nice.

Not sure how the feel about doing a Division rival a solid.
 


56 million for a Band-Aid is going to be a tough pill to swallow, but there's really no way around it. They aren't breaking ground on their new stadium until a year from now, so they are really stuck.
 

Slim Tubby said:
They always put the worst kid on the team at SS. They can cover for him on the field with quality players at 3B and 2B.
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Dude I was so good I played 3B and 2B as well. Nothing got through the infield.
 
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GophersInIowa said:
I wasn't chubby enough to play 1st.
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I blame the original Bad News Bears for this, but the move for coaches in my day was to put the fat guy at catcher. It's fine for slow pitch softball, but once stealing comes into the rules, you don't want someone who isn't nimble and mobile back there, especially when the pitcher isn't exactly painting corners.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
I blame the original Bad News Bears for this, but the move for coaches in my day was to put the fat guy at catcher. It's fine for slow pitch softball, but once stealing comes into the rules, you don't want someone who isn't nimble and mobile back there, especially when the pitcher isn't exactly painting corners.
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That was general move but our chubby kid was too scared of getting hit by foul balls so he was a terrible catcher. Ironically, the smallest guy on the team ended up being the best catcher.
 



beating my own personal dead horse again:

Aaron Gleeman has a new article/column in The Athletic, discussing players who could be traded during the off-season.

(warning - my opinion) Gleeman once again frames everything around "the cheap owners refuse to spend money, so they can't sign free agents and will have to trade current players to improve the roster."

but his list of potential trades runs from the obvious: Paddack, Vazquez, Julien, Miranda - to the less obvious choices - Castro, Duran, Jax, Correa, Pablo.

but in the end, it all comes down to: "The Twins might trade these players if they can get a good return without adding to the payroll." Duh. I never would have thought of that.......
 

Ope3 said:
I've been to the Yankees facility, right next to the Bucs stadium. Pretty nice.

Not sure how the feel about doing a Division rival a solid.
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Nailed it!

Rays will play the 2025 Regular Season at George M Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.

www.mlb.com

Tampa Bay Rays to play 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa

The Tampa Bay Rays announced that the team will play the 2025 regular season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees. The Rays stadium, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, was significantly damaged by Hurricane Milton on October 9 and will not
www.mlb.com www.mlb.com

The Boss.
 

Makes the most sense. Of all the realistic options, it's the biggest as far as seating capacity goes.
 

Ope3 said:
Nailed it!

Rays will play the 2025 Regular Season at George M Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.

www.mlb.com

Tampa Bay Rays to play 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa

The Tampa Bay Rays announced that the team will play the 2025 regular season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees. The Rays stadium, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, was significantly damaged by Hurricane Milton on October 9 and will not
www.mlb.com www.mlb.com

The Boss.
Click to expand...

We know there won't be conflicts on Mondays (except maybe Memorial Day), but who will have the priority when both teams are scheduled at home?
 


I'm pretty sure the Yankees Single A team, (low A), the Tampa Tarpons, play there also.

Edit: Just read an article that says TBD, but that Ray's will have priority. Tarpons may play some of their home games at other fields.
 

Ski U Mah Gopher said:
We know there won't be conflicts on Mondays (except maybe Memorial Day), but who will have the priority when both teams are scheduled at home?
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TNGophfan said:
I'm pretty sure the Yankees Single A team, (low A), the Tampa Tarpons, play there also.

Edit: Just read an article that says TBD, but that Ray's will have priority. Tarpons may play some of their home games at other fields.
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In 2023 the Tampa Tarpons averaged less than 1,000 fans per game. I am sure there are plenty of facilities that can handle that in the Tampa-St Pete area should there be any conflict with the Rays.

Could even play in the morning at The Boss with or without fans on evenings when the Rays had priority.

2023 MiLB attendance by average - Ballpark Digest

We wrap up our year-end posting of 2023 MiLB attendance numbers with the end of the MiLB season, as we move on to a list of 2023 MiLB attendance by average.
ballparkdigest.com ballparkdigest.com
 
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Ope3 said:
Nailed it!

Rays will play the 2025 Regular Season at George M Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.

www.mlb.com

Tampa Bay Rays to play 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa

The Tampa Bay Rays announced that the team will play the 2025 regular season at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees. The Rays stadium, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, was significantly damaged by Hurricane Milton on October 9 and will not
www.mlb.com www.mlb.com

The Boss.
Click to expand...

The Twins are currently scheduled to play their 3 game series in Tampa, July 4-6 (Fri-Sun).
 

On This Date in 2017: Just one year removed from the worst season in Twins history, St. Paul native Paul Molitor is named American League Manager of the Year.

Second Hall of Fame player to receive the award, after Frank Robinson in 1989.

Every Twins skipper since Tom Kelly has won the award.

IMG_0158.jpeg
 

Ope3 said:
In 2023 the Tampa Tarpons averaged less than 1,000 fans per game. I am sure there are plenty of facilities that can handle that in the Tampa-St Pete area should there be any conflict with the Rays.

Could even play in the morning at The Boss with or without fans on evenings when they Rays had priority.

2023 MiLB attendance by average - Ballpark Digest

We wrap up our year-end posting of 2023 MiLB attendance numbers with the end of the MiLB season, as we move on to a list of 2023 MiLB attendance by average.
ballparkdigest.com ballparkdigest.com
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Article I read said they wouldn't have both teams play same day to preserve field and traffic control issues. That may change but kind of doubt it. Like you said, lots of options in area for Tarpons - Dunedin, Clearwater, Lakeland, even Bradenton or Sarasota.
 



on the Tampa Bay story - a new twist. Political squabbles among County Commissioners could threaten the deal for the new Stadium that is supposed to be built. Here's some details from the website of a Tampa Bay TV Station:

A Pinellas County commissioner will vote against issuing the bonds necessary to finance the Tampa Bay Rays stadium deal after the team announced it will play its 2025 season in Tampa.

After a month of speculation, the Rays announced Thursday it will play at George M. Steinbrenner Field next season, which is also the spring training home of the New York Yankees.

"I think that it's unfortunate,” said Chris Latvala, who represents Commission District Five.

Latvala believes the team should have played next season at a minor league ballpark in Pinellas County, and he said he has no evidence the team even tried to do that.

“In total, there's going to be over $1 billion public funds dedicated from Pinellas residents to the Tampa Bay Rays, and the thank you that the Rays gave them was to play the games across the bridge in Hillsborough County,” he said.

For that reason, he plans to vote against funding the team’s longer-term effort to build a new stadium in St. Petersburg as part of the city of St. Pete’s Historic Gas Plant District Redevelopment.

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suposedly, in the recent election, two County Commissioners who supported the new stadium were defeated, and the two incoming members are anti-stadium. by voting against issuing the bonds, that throws off the timetable for the project. the owner of the team said in a statement that "The future of baseball in Tampa Bay became less certain after that vote."
 

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